Nehemiah 5–6

Nehemiah Helps Poor People

5The men and their wives complained loudly against their fellow Jews. ²Some of them were saying, “We have many sons and daughters in our families. To eat and stay alive, we need grain.”

³Others were saying, “We are borrowing money against our fields, vineyards, and homes to get grain because there is not much food.”

⁴And still others were saying, “We are borrowing money to pay the king’s tax on our fields and vineyards. ⁵We are just like our fellow Jews, and our sons are like their sons. But we have to sell our sons and daughters as slaves. Some of our daughters have already been sold. But there is nothing we can do, because our fields and vineyards already belong to other people.”

⁶When I heard their complaints about these things, I was very angry. ⁷After I thought about it, I accused the important people and the leaders, “You are charging your own brothers too much interest.” So I called a large meeting to deal with them. ⁸I said to them, “As much as possible, we have bought freedom for our fellow Jews who had been sold to foreigners. Now you are selling your fellow Jews to us!” The leaders were quiet and had nothing to say.

⁹Then I said, “What you are doing is not right. Don’t you fear God? Don’t let our foreign enemies shame us. ¹⁰I, my brothers, and my men are also lending money and grain to the people. But stop charging them so much for this. ¹¹Give back their fields, vineyards, olive trees, and houses right now. Also give back the extra amount you charged—the hundredth part of the money, grain, new wine, and oil.”

¹²They said, “We will give it back and not demand anything more from them. We will do as you say.”

Then I called for the priests, and I made the important people and leaders take an oath to do what they had said. ¹³Also I shook out the folds of my robe and said, “In this way may God shake out everyone who does not keep his promise. May God shake him out of his house and out of the things that are his. Let that person be shaken out and emptied!”

Then the whole group said, “Amen,” and they praised the Lord. So the people did what they had promised.

¹⁴I was appointed governor in the land of Judah in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes’ rule. I was governor of Judah for twelve years, until his thirty-second year. During that time neither my brothers nor I ate the food that was allowed for a governor. ¹⁵But the governors before me had placed a heavy load on the people. They took about one pound of silver from each person, along with food and wine. The governors’ helpers before me also controlled the people, but I did not do that, because I feared God. ¹⁶I worked on the wall, as did all my men who were gathered there. We did not buy any fields.

¹⁷Also, I fed one hundred fifty Jewish people and officers at my table, as well as those who came from the nations around us. ¹⁸This is what was prepared every day: one ox, six good sheep, and birds. And every ten days there were all kinds of wine. But I never demanded the food that was due a governor, because the people were already working very hard.

¹⁹Remember to be kind to me, my God, for all the good I have done for these people.

More Problems for Nehemiah

6Then Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and our other enemies heard that I had rebuilt the wall and that there was not one gap in it. But I had not yet set the doors in the gates. ²So Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message: “Come, Nehemiah, let’s meet together in Kephirim on the plain of Ono.”

But they were planning to harm me. ³So I sent messengers to them with this answer: “I am doing a great work, and I can’t come down. I don’t want the work to stop while I leave to meet you.” ⁴Sanballat and Geshem sent the same message to me four times, and each time I sent back the same answer.

⁵The fifth time Sanballat sent his helper to me with the message, and in his hand was an unsealed letter. ⁶This is what was written:

A report is going around to all the nations, and Geshem says it is true, that you and the Jewish people are planning to turn against the king and that you are rebuilding the wall. They say you are going to be their king ⁷and that you have appointed prophets to announce in Jerusalem: “There is a king of Judah!” The king will hear about this. So come, let’s discuss this together.

⁸So I sent him back this answer: “Nothing you are saying is really happening. You are just making it up in your own mind.”

⁹Our enemies were trying to scare us, thinking, “They will get too weak to work. Then the wall will not be finished.”

But I prayed, “God, make me strong.”

¹⁰One day I went to the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel. Shemaiah had to stay at home. He said, “Nehemiah, let’s meet in the Temple of God. Let’s go inside the Temple and close the doors, because men are coming at night to kill you.”

¹¹But I said, “Should a man like me run away? Should I run for my life into the Temple? I will not go.” ¹²I knew that God had not sent him but that Tobiah and Sanballat had paid him to prophesy against me. ¹³They paid him to frighten me so I would do this and sin. Then they could give me a bad name to shame me.

¹⁴I prayed, “My God, remember Tobiah and Sanballat and what they have done. Also remember the prophetess Noadiah and the other prophets who have been trying to frighten me.”

The Wall Is Finished

¹⁵The wall of Jerusalem was completed on the twenty-fifth day of the month of Elul. It took fifty-two days to rebuild. ¹⁶When all our enemies heard about it and all the nations around us saw it, they were shamed. They then understood that the work had been done with the help of our God.

¹⁷Also in those days the important people of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah, and he answered them. ¹⁸Many Jewish people had promised to be faithful to Tobiah, because he was the son-in-law of Shecaniah son of Arah. And Tobiah’s son Jehohanan had married the daughter of Meshullam son of Berekiah. ¹⁹These important people kept telling me about the good things Tobiah was doing, and then they would tell Tobiah what I said about him. So Tobiah sent letters to frighten me.